This invention relates to an engine accessory drive system and more particularly to an improved arrangement for mounting a component of the accessory on a light weight casting of the engine body without requiring special reinforcing in the mounting assembly.
Frequently an engine accessory is mounted on a light weight casting of an engine body to provide a convenient mounting relationship. For example it has been proposed to mount an oil pump for the engine on an alloy bulkhead member that cooperates with the alloy cylinder block to journal the engine crankshaft. Generally this type of arrangement provides a flexible transmitter drive for driving the oil pump from the engine crankshaft. This type of drive normally requires a tensioner mechanism for maintaining the proper tension in the transmitter. These tensioners are spring biased and the spring loading places a high stress on the alloy casting that might cause problems. An example of this type of construction is shown in Japanese published application, publication number Hei 6-299863. This requires reinforcing of the alloy casting, which adds to the expense.
In the aforenoted crankshaft journaling arrangements it has been proposed to embody ferrous reinforcements in at least one of the alloy castings to reinforce the casting in the area where the crankshaft is journalled. Examples of such reinforcing may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,693,216 and 5,769,546. However the use of these reinforcements has been limited to the journaling of the crankshaft.
It is therefore a principle object of this invention to provide an improved and simplified reinforcement for the mounting of an engine driven assembly component on a light alloy casting thereof.
It is a further object of the invention to utilize a reinforcing member in a light alloy casting provided for another purpose, for the mounting of the engine driven assembly component.